Patrol Ships Deployed

Recent Loss Of Sailors Heightened Sense Of Danger

LITTLE CREEK NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE — The USS Sirocco and the USS Typhoon left Little Creek on Friday to relieve ships in the Arabian Gulf that came under suicide attack.

Minutes before the USS Sirocco pushed away from a Little Creek pier and headed for the Arabian Gulf, Chief Petty Officer David Gallagher walked around the 170-foot coastal patrol ship checking to make sure every sailor had updated their next-of-kin information.

"It's standard operating procedure," Gallagher said. "It has to be done and we do it before every deployment."

This time, collecting phone numbers and updating address lists was anything but typical. The reality -- that the information might have to be used -- was much more clear.

The Sirocco and its sister ship, the USS Typhoon, deployed with nearly 60 local sailors Friday to relieve the Chinook and the Firebolt, the ship that lost two sailors in a suicide attack last weekend.

Another 1,000 sailors on three ships from Norfolk Naval Station -- two destroyers, the Ramage and Ross, and a guided missile frigate, the Elrod -- also deployed Friday.

Petty Officer 1st Class Michael J. Pernaselli, 27, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher E. Watts, 28, were killed April 24 in Iraq when suicide bombers detonated explosives on a boat the sailors were trying to board. A Coast Guard member who was from New York and stationed in Miami also was killed. Three other sailors and another Coast Guardsman were injured.

"Everybody knows we are going into harm's way," said Sirocco Chief Petty Officer Eric Duchesneau. "It's a dangerous mission. But you never know what could happen. You could get hit by a bus walking across the street."

Pernaselli and Watts were part of a seven-person team attempting to inspect a dhow, a small commerce ship, that was nearing an oil terminal in the northern Arabian Gulf. The Navy forbids boats to get within two miles of the terminal and standard security procedures require the team to investigate any vessel that nears them.

"Those events were more a tragedy for the loved ones at home because with us deploying it puts them in a more anxious state," Duchesneau said.

"For us sailors, we still have a job to do. Everyone grieves these deaths in their own way, but for me, the fact that we are getting under way to do what we train to do is a true testament to their lives. It honors them."

Friday's deployment was scheduled and not a result of the recent attacks, Navy spokesman Chief Petty Officer Mike Viola said.

The Firebolt and Chinook have been in the Middle East for more than 18 months and the Navy has been swapping the ship's 28-member crew every six months.

Both ships need to come back to port for routine maintenance.

Lt. Michael D. Nash, commanding officer of the Sirocco, said the patrol ships won't be changing any of their procedures -- like how to board a boat for inspection or how to disable a threatening vessel -- because of the recent deaths.

Before last weekend these ships had conducted hundreds of boardings without incident, Nash said.

"And to me that mission was successful," Nash said about the task Pernaselli and Watts were on.

"These guys protected that oil field. That oil field is still in operation so to me it was a success."

Besides, Nash said, "From what I understand there are people who work on that oil rig and what these guys did was save even more lives."

Tara Taylor, who lives in Newport News, saw her husband, Lt. J.G. Dwight Taylor, off for the first time.

"This isn't the first time either of us have gone through a deployment, but it's our first deployment together," Tara said. "We've only been married a little over six weeks."

Tara, who prides herself on being a Navy brat, said she remembered countless times she had to say goodbye to her father.